M A I N   N E W S

Rouvanjit’s Suicide
Panel says no to corporal punishment for all children
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 22
A day after The Tribune highlighted the delay in the submission of the report on the circumstances leading to the death of 13-year old Rouvanjit Rawla of La Maritiniere for Boys, Kolkata, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) formally accepted the investigating committee’s report late this evening.

Although NCPCR chairperson Shanta Sinha declined to comment on the report, saying that she had not read it and would observe it next week only in the full meeting of the Child Commission, The Tribune has learnt that the panel has demanded a separate legal enactment to prohibit corporal punishment at schools. The panel has picked holes in the just-enacted Right to Education Act that excludes a vast range of schoolchildren aged 0 to 5 and those aged 15 to 18.

A comprehensive law prohibiting corporal punishment and covering all children aged 0 to 18 is a must, the panel has argued, saying the RTE Act was limited in scope as it only covered children aged 6 to 14. The panel has recommended clear definition of corporal punishment and firm guidelines for granting recognition to schools; it said schools found indulging in corporal punishment must lose their recognition.

The panel also sought the Government to evolve guidelines in a way that schools get an NOC to operate only when they undertake to prohibit corporal punishment.

The three-member panel was led by child rights advocate Ashok Agarwal. It further observed Rouvanjit’s suicide could not be delinked from the humiliation meted out to him at school and sought the suspension of school principal Sunirmal Chakravarti and middle school in charge LG Gunnion, found to have physically humiliated Rouvanjit.

The suspension has been sought while police investigations were on. Argument is that the presence of the two would hamper investigations and prevent children from openly speaking up in the case. The panel has observed that corporal punishment is rampant at the said school.

Reflecting on the events leading to Rouvanjit’s death, the committee added that his suicide could have been “certainly avoided” had the school teachers not humiliated him and had his father listened to him. Rouvanjit had phoned his father on February 12, but the latter is said to have told the child that he would talk to him later. Rouvanjit hanged himself hours later. The panel does not fix any responsibility on Rouvanjit’s parents though.

Its findings run contrary to La Maritiniere principal’s claim that though he had caned Rouvanjit, the caning did not lead to suicide. The panel said the linkage between the child’s humiliation and his suicide could not be “ruled out”.